The 'new' Newt Gingrich is for real

I poll and analyze the 2012 presidential race straight down the middle, an equal opportunity offender.

However, I am in a unique position to explain who “the new” Newt Gingrich is, and why he is starting to race up to the top of national and various state polls.

I have known Newt since I was 19, serving as a youthful debate adviser in 1980, a lawyer in recount elections, his campaign chairman from 1992 until he resigned from office and a client of his consulting group in his early years in business.

I’ve known his daughters, his wives and his closest friends.

The Newt I used to know hardly resembles the man I know now.

Then he was extremely ambitious (I thought he was crazy when he told me in 1980 that he would someday be speaker of the House) and let virtually nothing stand in his way.

He was so trigger-happy that he fired without thinking, rarely worrying about the collateral damage he left behind. He could engage in really heated arguments, and the way most of us survived was to fight right back.

I knew he loved football, having played it in high school, but it was hard for any of his friends to get him to consistently join the average Joe and get into supporting a team, save New Year’s, when he would kick back with friends and watch games — but talk politics.

He was also secretive. Even with those he basically loved and who loved him, he could never truly drop his guard.

I can’t tell you how many then-young members of Congress on the GOP side would pull me aside and ask me what Newt really thought of them. I had a standard answer: “He doesn’t think of you. Just keep on doing your best, and don’t pay too much attention when he gets mad.”

It worked, because many of those who asked me that question are now governor, senators or very successful in other occupations.

The one thing that never bothered me personally was Newt’s so-called “baggage.” Not because I approved of some self-confessed improper actions, but because I knew the real story behind the various untrue tales related to both marriages.

It’s not my place to spill the beans on the inner dynamics of Newt’s prior marriages, particularly with regard to wife No. 2, whom I knew throughout that marriage. I think it is fair to say that both parties shared equal blame, both morally and otherwise, for the demise of the union.

By the early 2000s, Newt was not the best of company. But it was then that he began to change. He converted to the Catholic Church, and for the first time was passionate about God and his spiritual life.

His marriage to Callista brought him peace and a settled lifestyle that I had never seen in the many decades I had known him.

Then came the grandchildren. Newt became an integral part of their lives, perhaps more so than in that of his girls when they were growing up. His eyes light up around them, and he never hesitates to let them be a part of whatever he is doing.

The new Newt rarely loses his temper, suffers fools easily and cares about the more human and personal side of his longtime friends. He is genuinely kind.

And there is one more characteristic that Newt actually had even as speaker that he retains today. Despite his reputation as “the smartest guy in the room,” he bucks the typical GOP desire to use pomp, title or access in a manner to make others feel small.

From the day I met him until the day I write this column, he has always asked people to call him not congressman or Mr. Speaker, but just “Newt.”

It may be that the Newt is not only more likeable but more electable. But if he’s president, we will likely have to get used to calling him President Newt.

IF Newt can withstand the tomahawk missile attack he is about to receive from the media, he could be the man....Let me see....He and Tilly Fowler, Connie Mack, Joe Scarborough, John Kasich, and some more of the best members of congress in our history, managed to get more good things done in 4 years than anyone today might believe: how about 3.8% Unemployment, Peace and Prosperity, Welfare Reformed completely, Balanced Budget first time since 1969, and left Bush $231 Billion in the checkbook....the rich got richer, the poor got richer, the middle class expanded, those 4 years were among our best ever....Bill Clinton received most of the credit although he actually threatened to veto most everything Newt brought to his desk....to his credit, Bubba was just smart enough not to veto anything, and the rest is history...Could Newt do it one more time? This disaster is much worse than the one he cleaned up last time.....He looks like our best possibility at this point....Ignore the warts, they all have some.

NEWT GINGRICH:
I don't think right wing social engineering is any more desirable than left wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate. I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare system with more choices for seniors.

or where did he get this wisdom:
Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong."
— Dwight D. Eisenhower